Thousands Sign Petition To Cancel Netflix's Reality TV Show Set In Byron Bay

While there were loads of people who were excited about Netflix's first Australian reality TV series, there are many more who don't.

Byron Baes will be a docu-soap exploring the enchanting and enthralling lives of influencers in the idyllic tourist hotspot in northern New South Wales.

But an online petition has been launched to cancel the show before it can even have time to breathe.

Tess Hall has launched the campaign and told the likes of Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Tweed Shires and government officials to ensure film crews don't land on their doorstep.

She wrote on the GetUp site: "We, the community of Byron, Ballina, Tweed, and Lismore Shires are not the perfect backdrop for this series.

"We are a community experiencing significant challenges driven by influencer culture and rapidly shifting demographics of residents.

"We do not want to be cast as the perfect backdrop and magnet for social media influencers. We do not want to appear in Byron Baes."

She's calling on the relevant councils to refuse Netflix a permit to begin treating the town like its The Hills and follow a bunch of people all over the hottest cafes and restaurants.

"Rather than using our region as a reality show punch line we want our Local, State and Federal government representatives and relevant regulatory authorities to focus on supporting our community to address systemic issues of housing affordability, coastal erosion, increasing unemployment, traffic management challenges, low high school completion rates and high levels of gendered and domestic violence," she said

"We want our voice to be heard and we do not want to deal with the fallout of being showcased on a global stage in a way that can only harm our local environment and community."

Netflix sounded pretty sure it wanted to call Byron Bay the home of its first reality TV show.

Emma Lamb will be executive producing Byron Baes and she's previously worked on Married At First Sight and The Real Housewives Of Sydney.

The programme will be made by Eureka Productions, who have been responsible for Holey Moley, The Voice Australia, The Amazing Race Australia, Farmer Wants A Wife, and plenty more.

Netflix's director of content for Australia and New Zealand, Que Minh Luu, said in a statement: "You've got this cabal, or live feed as we've been calling it, of Instagrammers, who all live up in Byron, and there are a lot of them.

"And we're following them as they're going about the hustle and finding love and happiness and the validation of the people around them and people online."

There's been no confirmation on who the influencers will be but we'll have to wait patiently.

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie